'The Stalkers: Amit Shah’s Illegal Surveillance Exposed'

In a press-conference today, Cobrapost and Gulail played the above video, reportedly based on hundreds of recorded telephonic conversations made by suspended Gujarat IPS officer G.L. Singhal, an accused in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan murder case, which are said to have been handed over to the CBI.

This story is about the misuse of police machinery and powers of the State by a top minister in the Gujarat government to stalk a young woman from Bangalore, subjecting her to constant surveillance for reasons not immediately apparent.

Gujarat IPS officer G.L. Singhal, who is an accused in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case (Ishrat was killed, along with three others, by Gujarat Police in 2004) and out on bail, has handed over hundreds of recorded telephonic conversations to the CBI revealing how three key wings of the Gujarat Police—the State Intelligence Bureau, also known as CID Intelligence, the Crime Branch and the Anti-Terrorist Squad—misused their powers to stalk an unmarried young woman from Bangalore, who had her parents staying in Gujarat.

The entire surveillance-cum-phone interception operation was mounted in August 2009 on oral orders, without any valid legal authorization, and was meant only to serve the interests of someone whom the then minister of state for home, Amit Shah, addressed as ‘saheb’.

The girl's father, however, said in a statement that his daughter, who was based in Bangalore, had come to Ahmedabad when her mother was to undergo a surgery. She was required to commute at odd hours between the hospital and a nearby hotel which was a matter of concern to him.

He had, therefore, orally requested Modi, "with whom we have long-standing family relations" to "take care" of her. He was shocked that some "vested interests" were approaching the media in this regard.

BJP sources declined to react immediately, saying that the girl's father had already issued a statement.